Dear Friend,

No one ever sits down and thinks about how two people became friends. One day, by mere chance two people bond enough to create a friendship. I once read an article many years ago that stated, every seven years a single person will have a different group of friends and/or a different best friend. If the friendship between two people can last more than seven years, the friendship is seen as a possible lifelong bond. Sadly enough, seven years went by too quickly or the time together never reach that close.

Life is strange how it happens and social media is a constant reminder that things change and people enter and leave your life within a blink of an eye. Recently, I was sitting at a local coffee shop enjoying the morning before my class and a Facebook post “One (or more) year(s) ago today..”came up on my screen, displaying our friendship from middle and high school. How funny it seems that as I sit in a coffee shop in Salt Lake City working toward my senior year in college, you are now expecting your first child. Here we are, 20-somethings year-olds, at two completely different points in our life. It seems like not so long ago we would linger on the possible future of living in a city far away, pondering on the future names of our children, and mentioning how we would be crazy grandmothers with no shame.

Presently, I cannot recall the last time we spoke a full conversation in person.

No one could have prepared us for what the future held. Moving schools, high school graduation, and boyfriends took us down separate paths. I hold no grudge against these events, but appreciate the countless hours we spent listening to All-American Rejects, creating inside jokes from Important Things with Demetri Martin, and bickering on who Bella should fall for.

Past friendships are not a thing to cry for or spend days pondering on the endless if-then scenarios. Rather it is a look back on how one specific person influenced your growth as an individual and left a chapter in your book of life. Perhaps, one day we can reconnect on a mutual interest or life stage experience and pick up our friendship. If not, it is always a comfort to know I had a friend like you in my life. Without such a friend I would not have survived the awkward middle school years, created an interest in things I enjoy, or developed specific personality characteristics. So I would like to respectfully thank you for being there at the best and worst, and being the best friend I could have ever asked for.